What Might Have Been
by Kawaii Kuroi Mahotsukai
Summary: The what ifs plague everyone. What if it was Yuugi that was sealed, instead of Yami? What might have been, as I see it. Shounen-ai, Yami/Yuugi, Malik/Ryou, Y.Malik(AKA Marik)/Bakura, Seto/Jounouchi, DM/MOBC. New chapter! (after, what, four months?)
1. Prologue

What if Yami wasn't the one sealed away? What if Yugi was the ancient spirit, and Yami the normal teenager? This is what I think might have been, had that been.  
Disclaimer:   
*A short girl with big blue eyes and brown hair scuttles out, holding a rope.* Ahem. Hi Mom! This is Z's disclaimer for Z. Written by me. 'Cause I wanna feel special. ^_^ *tugs on the rope* C'mon boy! Cooooome out! Don't fear the cameos!   
Cutie: *drags a bound 'n' gagged Sephiroth onto the disclaiming stage.*  
Disclaim! DISCLAIM, MY PRETTY, DISCLAIM!  
Sephiroth: Z doesn't own YuGiOh.   
Sephiroth: Why the HELL am I here?  
Cutie: Cause I SAID SO. And Cause Relevence sucks.  
Z: *skips out onstage* Rock on! And thank you, Cutiemew and Sephiroth for that lovely disclaimer. Anyhow. This fic has shounen-ai (Yami/Yugi, Seto/Jounouchi, Malik/Ryou and Y. Malik (AKA Marik)/Bakura.) Don't like, don't read. Anyhow.... On to the fic!  
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**PROLOGUE**  
*Egypt, circa 1000 BCE*  
A short, spiky-haired boy, who had the largest, sweetest, most innocent violet eyes one could hope to see, stood in the center of the floor of a darkened room, the one light focused on him. In the shadows around him, a council of darkness whispered. "He is the one!" "Most certainly. But will the pharaoh allow it?" "He must! It is the only way." "But, why Yugi? He is innocent of any wrong..." "That is why he is the one! The sacrifice requires seven pure innocents, and we have found the last one." The whispering was interrupted by the opening of a huge door, and the council scattered as a tall, spiky-headed teenager strode imperiously into the room. "Seth! What is the meaning of this?" The leader of the council, the high priest of Egypt, stepped forward and dropped to one knee for a moment in a gesture of respect, before rising to his feet and looking the pharaoh in the eye. "Yami, we've found the last required sacrifice to seal the shadow games." 

"..." The pharaoh shrugged, looked around and spotted Yugi. He at once turned back to the high priest, his crimson eyes hard and cold. "All right, Seth, what does Yugi have to do with all this?" The look in his old friend's ice-blue eyes told him all he needed to know. "Oh no..." The high priest nodded. "Yes. Yugi is the final sacrifice." A shadow of pain flickered across Seth's face. "They already took Jounouchi and Mokuba." Yami gasped. "What?! Not them too..." The high priest nodded, a tear trickling down his face. The pharaoh was shaken, but he steeled himself for the worst and asked the fatal question, "Who else?" The priest's voice was so quiet and choked with tears, Yami had to strain to the utmost to catch his words. "Ryou, Bakura, Jou, Mokuba and Yugi are the ones we know..." "Oh, gods. Seth, I'm so sorry..." "Forget it." 

Yugi stood in the pool of cold, blue, magical light, shivering violently. "W-what's going on? What...?" He screamed as two mages suddenly grabbed him by the arms and began to drag him away. "YAMI!" The pharaoh whipped around as he heard the cry. "Yugi!" He tried to run after the boy and his captors, but he found himself restrained by his old friend, the high priest. "Seth! Let me go!" Seth just sighed. "There is no other way... I'm sorry, my friend." There was a sharp crack as a staff smacked Yami over the head, and the pharaoh slumped in the priest's arms, unconscious. "Thank you, Akuma no Yami.(1)" Akuma, the Magician of Black Chaos, just shook his head sadly as he vanished. The priest promptly set the pharaoh down and hurried off to oversee the sacrifice. 

Yami groaned softly and opened his eyes, discovering that he was alone. "Unh... wha.... YUGI!" In a flash, he was on his feet and running down the hall. "Hang on, little one... I'm coming." He whispered, dashing down the corridors, knowing instictively where he was going. Within the deepest sanctum in the palace lay the portal to the Shadow Realm. The place where the blood of seven innocents was to be spilled to lock that cursed door forever. He knew there was nothing that could be done to stop it, but he also knew he had to be there, if only to say goodbye to his love. 

'Where is it, where is it... There!' Yami skidded around the corner and into the room, just as Ishizu, the priestess appointed to perform the sacrifice, prepared to drive the enchanted dagger she held into Yugi's heart. "NO!" Yami screamed... too late, as Yugi collapsed, the blade that had slain him already melting into him, completing the sealing spell. He was at the boy's side in an instant, weeping, yet dimly aware of Seth's broken sobs from his left, Marik's wails of pure agony from his right, and Malik's gibberings somewhere behind him- losing Ryou had driven Ishizu's younger brother insane. "Yugi? I'm sorry, little one... I'm so sorry..." Yami cried, hugging the smaller boy close, ignoring the blood staining his hands. The dying youth opened his violet eyes, smiled weakly, reached up, gently pulled Yami's head down and kissed him, then whispered, "I... love you..." And then, he was gone in a flash of golden light, and the puzzle he was sealed into shattered into a thousand glittering fragments... just like the pharaoh's heart. "Y-Yugi..." He whimpered, then let out all the pent-up agony in one long wail. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!" With that final cry of agony, Yami, the pharaoh of Egypt, the Game King, Yu-Gi-Oh, died from the dagger he had driven into his own heart. 

Thus does our story begin.  
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I know, I'm bad, starting a new saga before my old one is done, and I know I promised no more Yami/Yugi tormenting... But the idea assaulted me! And this one ought to be pretty good. At least, I hope so o.o;  
1: Literally, demon of darkness. I love that name ^_^ And I came up with it all by myself, too. 


	2. Chapter 1: New beginnings

You never know what might be, who you might meet... And who knows, starting a new journey may not be so hard... or maybe it has already begun. */blatantly ripped off from Kingdom Hearts* 

Warning: Shounen-ai. Yami/Yugi, (Eventual) Seto/Jounouchi, Malik/Ryou and Y. Malik (AKA Marik)/Bakura, various oddness and Anzu bashing. 

Oh, and Silver Dragon? This is A/U. I made Ryou and Bakura/Malik and Marik brothers, because they look alike and I needed to give Malik and Ryou pasts in Egypt because I needed to give Malik a reason for being insane ^_^. And Bakura's a nice guy... Because. Just because! 

Disclaimer:  
Cutie: Iiiits time for more cameos, ladies and Gentlemen! This time we have... *looks at an envelope* Steve of Blue's Clues? The HELL with that... We haaave... TOMBA! Who will be tap dancing as Zippo disclaims to the tune of Frank Sinatra tunes.  
Tomba: *tap dances*  
Zippo: OOoooooOOOoo, Z does Not own YugiOH OH OH or any of the CHAAAAARACTERS...  
Tomba: *some incomprehensible noise*  
Cutie: *applauds*  
Z: *giggles* Thank you again, Kooters! Your disclaimers are always so funny... Anyway. On with the first real chapter!  
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**CHAPTER ONE**

*Domino Town, Japan, circa 2002 A.D. Three thousand and two years to the day later.* It was the end of an ordinary day at Domino High School. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, teenagers were making out behind the school... And Seto Kaiba was fleeing a horde of fangirls. His friends, the twin brothers Malik and Marik Ishtar and Yami Mutou had received advance warning of the fangirls' invasion, and thus escaped, but he had not been so lucky. He saw a fangirl with a tranquilizer gun drawing a bead on him, and he began running faster, dodging whatever students were in the halls and exhibiting the speed that had won him a spot on the track team three years running, even when laden with a backpack full of schoolbooks. 'Thank God all the teachers are busy right now... I would be in some very deep shit if they caught me running in the halls.' He turned a corner sharply, barely avoiding a tranquilizer dart, and disappeared through a door marked, "Authorized personnel ONLY." 

Seto found himself in a back hallway of the school. "Yes! I've found a sanctuary!" He took off running down the hall and turned a corner, searching for a place to hide... when a door flew open and smacked him in the face. "OW! SHIT! FUCK! I FINK I BWOKE MAH NOBE!" He howled, clutching the offended appendage and doing a dance of pain. A sheepish "Whoops." drifted from behind the door, and a moment later, the spiky head of the billionaire's best friend, Yami, poked from behind the aforementioned door. "Eh... Sorry, Seto. I thought you were Anzu." Both teens shuddered at the mention of the head fangirl's name, then Seto shot Yami an evil death glare as he sagged to the floor, panting. "Remind me... to kill you... once the world stops spinning..." "I'll make a note of it." The spike-headed teen shot back, grinning. Another death glare hit him. "Shut up, Yami." Yami just shrugged, handing his friend a kleenex, which he used to mop away the blood on his face. "Whatever. I take it you need a place to hide?" Seto glared at his friend, looking quite comical with a wad of kleenex hanging out of his left nostril. "No SHIT, Sherlock!" Yami nodded wisely. "Thought so." The other glared at him momentarily, then shrugged. "Whatever. Is there enough room for me in there?" Seto jerked his head at the closet Yami had been hiding in. The spike-haired teen looked his friend up and down appraisingly, looked into the janitor's closet where he had been hiding, and nodded. "It'll be a bit of a squeeze, but I think we can make it." 

"..." Seto, hearing the door he had entered through slam, promptly shrugged his backpack off his shoulders and walked into the closet, dragging Yami in after him while simultaneously dragging his backpack after him and shutting the door. Chaos ensued. "SETO! You stepped on my foot!" "Well, you made me hit my head on the wall!" "Did not! Where's the damn door?" "You did too, and I don't know! You tripped me and I lost hold of the doorknob." "Oh, shit. I'm trapped in a closet with Seto Kaiba." "Better to be trapped with me than a fangirl." Both shuddered. "How true." Yami mused, leaning back against a wall. Silence. "How are we going to get out of here?" Seto finally asked. "Bang on the walls. Then feel around any part that sounds different. Duh." Yami shot back, doing just that. Seto sighed heavily before leaning back and gently banging his head against the wall. "That's it!" Yami yelped gleefully, springing forward and opening the door, causing his friend to fall over, dragging Yami down with him. The result was that the billionaire ended up lying on his back with his friend sprawled on his chest, nose to nose with him, their lips pressed together. 

"GAH!" Seto yelped, scrambling away from Yami. "ACK!" The other responded, scrubbing frantically at his lips with the sleeve of his coat as he, too, scampered away. "Oh grossness! I just kissed my best friend!" The spiky-headed teenager wailed, back pressed against the far wall, still scrubbing frantically at his lips. Seto was having a similar reaction on the other side of the hallway. "I did not just kiss my best friend... Must not vomit... Did not kiss Yami... must not vomit... Did not kiss Yami... must not vomit..." He chanted, rocking back and forth. 

Their little island of disgust was washed away a moment later by the squealing of a fangirl. "EEEEEEEEEEEEE! IT'S SETO AND YAMI!" A moment later, the entire horde was after the two, who were running for their lives. 

Yami and Seto screeched around a corner and dove into a shadowy doorway, just barely hiding themselves in a niche before the horde of screaming girls stampeded past. The moment all was clear, they slumped against the walls, gasping for breath. "That.... was too close." Yami wheezed. Seto nodded. "WAY too close." They held their breaths as another herd of fangirls rushed past, screaming. 

It took awhile, but eventually, the fangirls got sick of hunting the duo and wandered off home, leaving our heroes to walk home in the dark. Fortunately, Seto and Yami lived not too far from each other, only a few blocks, so they could walk together and chat to pass the time. Mostly, they talked about duel monsters and the like, but something was different on this occasion, and the conversation turned to Egypt... 

"Seto, has anything... changed... lately? Because, I swear, I've been having these STRANGE dreams about Egypt..." 

Seto came to a full stop when he heard those words. "Strange.... dreams... About Egypt..." 

Yami nodded. "And duel monsters coming to life..." 

The tall brunette absently ran a hand through his hair. "And Malik and Marik pulling pranks on us..." 

The shorter, spike-headed teenager bit his lip. "And Ishizu killing a kid who looks like me." 

Seto winced. "And my little brother..." 

Quiet reigned for a few moments- not even the cicadas dared break the utter silence, until Seto uttered a short, barking laugh and started walking again. "What are we, idiots? They're only dreams." Yami shook his head for a moment, before laughing and breaking into a jog to catch up to his friend. "Wait up!" Seto laughed again as he stopped. "Yami, you idiot, the game shop is right over there!" Yami paused, blinked, looked over, blinked again, then grinned sheepishly. "So it is. See you later, baka!" His friend waved, shouted, "You too, baka!" And walked off into the twilight. 

'I'm glad I got my homework done while I was hiding in that closet... I really need to hit the hay.' Yami thought as he trudged through the front door, answered his grandfather's cheerful hello with a monosyllabic grunt and plodded upstairs, where he kicked off his shoes, and flopped facedown on his bed without undressing and promptly fell asleep. 

*Several hours later.*  
Yami found himself smack in the middle of a familiar dream... or so he thought, at first. He was in the center of a white marble hall, sitting on what felt like a throne, and surrounded by guards- the Celtic Guardian and the Dark Magician, to be exact. 'Not this again.' He tried to stand up and look around, but found himself unable to. As a matter of fact, he was unable to do anything except think. 'What the FUCK is going on here?! This isn't how the dream goes!' At that point, things began to happen. The large, bronze doors at the far end of the hall creaked open, and a short, spike-headed boy who was identical to Yami, save for his huge, innocent violet eyes, came dashing in, giggling as he scampered down the center of the hall, up the steps to the throne and onto Yami's lap, where he snuggled contentedly. 'WHAT THE FUCK?!' With a start, Yami realized he was speaking aloud. Or, to be more precise, he was CHUCKLING aloud, though, fortunately, he was not using the words he was thinking. "What did you do this time, Yugi?" Just as Yugi began to answer, the dream faded, to be replaced by another. 

This time, he was sitting on the edge of a pool while Yugi swam gleefully around in it. "Come in, Yami, the water's great!" "Yugi, I don't-" He was cut off by a sheet of water which Yugi splashed at him, efficiently soaking him through. "Why, you-!" Again, the dream faded, to be replaced by a single snippet of Yugi, violet eyes half-shut, smiling at him. "Oh, Yami..." A second snippet, this time with Yugi looking worried. "Yami..." A third snippet, with Yugi screaming in terror as he was dragged away. "YAMI! YAMI, HELP!" Yami felt that he was falling into the blackness surrounding him, the smaller boy's terrified cries piercing his heart like a hail of knives. "Yami! YAMI! YAMIIIII!" 

Yami snapped awake with a yelp. "AGH!" He bolted to his feet and stared around his room frantically, panting. "Wha-who-how...?" He sighed heavily, seeing nothing but the familiar furnishings of his room. "Just a dream. Damn it, how long is this going to go on?" He began to crawl back into bed, then, for reasons unknown to him, he paused. 'Turn around.' A little voice inside him said. He had learned to obey his intuition by now, so turn around he did. He found his gaze drawn to the desk, where a strange box lay. "Huh?" He muttered sleepily, stumbling over to examine the item more closely. It was a beautiful little thing, not more than four inches tall, crafted cunningly out of gold and set on one side with rubies and amethysts in the pattern of an eye. "How did this get here?" 'Nevermind how it got here, open it!' Yami's curiosity urged. His curiosity was his worst weakness, and he knew it well, so he gently lifted the lid off the box and spilled it's contents onto his desktop. 'A puzzle!' He looked longingly at his rumpled bed for a moment, then shrugged, turned the light up a little, sat down and set to work fitting the interlocking pieces of gold together. 

*Exactly three and a half hours later...*  
Yami yawned heavily, mindlessly snapping bits of gold together. "Almost done..." He muttered, snapping another piece into the heart of the upside-down pyramid. "Three more..." He felt over his desk, grabbing the right piece, and snapped it in. "Two..." Another grab at a puzzle piece, another satisfying click. "One..." He grabbed the final piece, the eye in the center of the front facet and frowned slightly, feeling a slight foreboding. "This is it..." He snapped the piece in place and held the puzzle up to admire his handiwork. "Pretty good for a beginner." He set the golden pyramid down on his desk, stood, and turned to go to bed, when he heard a loud whirring noise. "What the...?" He turned back to his desk, and was shocked to see the puzzle was enveloped in a flame of brilliant gold. "Holy shit!" Again curiosity gripped him, and he stepped forward, leaning over the puzzle to see better what was happening to it. What happened next was truly the strangest thing he had ever experienced. The light surrounding the puzzle floated away from it and formed into a short, spiky-headed boy who was nearly identical to the very confused Yami. "What the-!" The confused teenager had no time to expand on that thought, as he found himself staring into the huge, innocent violet eyes of the other boy. "Oh.... my... god..." He breathed, his own crimson eyes widening enough to take up nearly half his face. The huge, violet orbs blinked once, twice, thrice, then widened. "Y-Yami? YAMI!" Yami gave him a puzzled look. "Who are you, what are you doing here and how do you know my name?"  
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I edited this one a wee bit... Thank you to Icz for goading me to fix it up a bit ^_^ I promise you, the next chapter will be interesting! 


	3. Chapter 2: The narrator explains

Chapter two: In which the narrator reveals herself.  
Warnings: Pointless fluff, one-sided Yami/Yugi (For now!), (Eventual) Seto/Jounouchi, Malik/Ryou and Marik/Bakura. Oh, yeah, and a duel monster is the narrator. Next chapter, Yami-tachi go to the arcade for some much-needed R&R.  
This chapter is dedicated to my friend, Darth. Happy Birthday, Darthy! Consider this chapter half of your birthday gift ^_^  
Oh, right... While we're here... Bahamut, would you please do the disclaimer?  
Bahamut: Okay... *takes a deep breath* My summoner does not own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters. She does own the plot of this fic, though, so please don't steal it.  
Or I will be forced to hunt you down and KEEL YOU! Ahem... Anyway. *allows the chapter to start*  
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Before Yugi could speak a word, Yami laughed harshly and turned away, talking softly to himself. "What am I thinking? This is just a hallucination brought on by lack of sleep." Here he turned back to Yugi.   
  
"You, hallucination or whatever you are, turn the light off and go away. I'm going to sleep."  
  
Yugi's huge violet eyes doubled in size. "Y-you don't remember me?"   
Yami just laughed again. "You? You're a figment of my imagination! Why should I remember you?"   
Yugi sighed, walked over and looked up at him sadly. "This is why..."   
He whispered, pulling his head down and placing a gentle kiss on his lips. Yami was too shocked to do anything but stand there and take it, while thinking, 'This is one hell of a fucked-up dream...' (A.N. Yami, you pottymouth...)  
  
Yami's back was to the window, and Yugi was too caught up in the moment to notice the small, winged shadow that detached itself from the tree outside the window. Nor did they notice the small puff of black smoke that marked it's passage into the shadow realm. However, the green-eyed boy who was skulking in the bushes DID notice, and he followed. And that factors into our story in a very large way.  
  
FLASH! The Meda Bat that had been spying on Yami and Yugi appeared in the realm of shadows-turned-evil with a paradoxical (A.N. Is that a word? O.o;) flash of dark light. It screeched once as it melted into a ball of black energy, and once more, as a muscular, suit-clad man with blue-green hair and blank, pupil-less brown eyes snapped his jaws shut on it, chewing a few times and tilting his head reflectively as he swallowed. "Hmm... So Yami has no memories... Interesting."  
  
Now, before I go on, I suppose I should explain the state of affairs in the shadow realm. The King of Yamimakai has taken over, and most of the monsters have been subdued. However, all is not lost, for a small group of powerful mages and shapeshifters has escaped the evil creature's clutches. Also, for you humans who haven't quite grasped it yet, the monsters on the duel monsters cards actually do exist in the shadow realm, but ninety-five percent of them are humans who have chosen to take stronger, more efficient, non-human forms outside the darkness that is their home. What? How do I know? Simple. I'm one of them myself.   
  
Anyway, since I'm off on a tangent now, I might as well introduce the little group of rebels I'm a part of.   
  
First, there's our leader, Akuma, he's the eldest. His full name is Akuma no Yami, which means Demon of Darkness in modern Japanese, I think. He's the Magician of Black Chaos, so you know what he looks like, right? Long black hair, red-brown eyes, kinda greenish skin, tattoos, buckle fetish? Him.   
Then there's his best friend (And crush- don't tell him I told you!), Shade, the Dark Magician, he's younger than Akuma, he's got purple hair, blue eyes and a serious case of paranoia- he never takes that damn armor off.   
Next is Shade's younger brother, Destroyer, the Summoned Skull (There's the efficiency thing I was talking about! He's just as powerful as his brother, but he requires less energy to summon, which makes him a valuable asset to his master, or rather, masters, Yami and Yugi), in his human form he's nearly identical to Shade, but shorter, with reddish-purple hair and fiery green eyes, rather than deep blue (Sound familiar? He's the one who told me about the Meda Bat incident, and he was the boy who was skulking in the bushes under Yami's window).   
Then there's Bahamut, the Black Skull Dragon, daughter of a Summoned Skull and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon, she has red eyes and black hair with bright red streaks.   
Then, of course, there's me, the eldest of the four Blue-Eyes White Dragons. What? Of course I'm not a dragon right now. When I'm not fighting, I'm just a girl with silver hair and blue eyes. In battle, though, I'm quite distinctive. I'm the smallest of us, you see. May I continue...? Okay.  
The second eldest of us is my brother Sennen, he's got the same hair and eyes that I do- as a matter of fact, we all have silver hair and blue eyes, but my brothers are bigger than my little sister and I.   
Seto, our youngest brother, is next in line, (Don't confuse him with Master Seto! He's a completely different person), then the youngest of us, Sakura, who is the only healer in our strange little group. (I don't blame her for choosing the way of the healer. Our mother was an elf, and the healing arts often tempt me, as well. How I wish this war would end...). Then, finally, there's Aika.  
  
Aika is the most important one of our little group. Why? Simply enough, she's the last of her clan, the Maha Vailo. You see, her clan were the only ones who knew the secret to unlocking the four mystic items- the Horn of the Unicorn, the Axe of Despair, the Sword of Tenacity (Deep-Seated), and the key to them all, the Book of Secret Arts. If we can collect them all, she'll be able to use that energy to restore Yami's powers, so he can help us. The only problem is, we need him to help us retrieve the stupid items. I believe humans nowadays call such a situation a "catch-22."   
  
Wait, there's more. Yamimakai's found Yami, and he's going to send his minions to kill him. If we lose him, we're in some very deep trouble, because we need his shadow powers to seal the shadow realm for the last time. We'd do it ourselves, but it must be sealed from the outside, and if we're cut off from our home for too long, we'll die. And besides... What? Oh, excuse me. The story, right. Where was I? Hmm... Oh, forget it. Let's go to Seto, now, since I can more easily keep tabs on him- Why? He's my master, you dolt... Ah, yes, there he is. Mokuba's just gone to bed, and he's just settling down after a long day...  
  
Seto sighed heavily, flopping on his back on his bed, his limbs a graceless tangle. "God, I hate my job..." He rolled over and shoved his face into the pillow, screaming angrily for a moment, then pulling himself loose and sighing heavily. "Day and night, it's grind, grind, grind." He paused for a moment before laughing humorlessly. "I'm talking to myself! Maybe I AM going off the deep end." He paused again to consider this, then shrugged, yawned and stretched lazily. As he did, his hand hit a small, hard object. "Huh?" Seto yawned languidly, pulling himself up to lean against the head of his bed, before reaching under his pillow and grabbing the box which lay there. "Where'd this come from?" He blinked twice before shrugging. "Who cares? 'S not big enough to be a bomb..." and flipping the lid open. "A necklace. Some joker sent me a necklace." He paused, then grinned. "Aw, what the hell. Looking like an idiot will do me some good." He picked the necklace up and fastened it around his neck. No sooner had the clasp clicked shut than... FLASH! A blur of golden light! A moment later, Seto found himself lying on his back with something sitting on his stomach.  
  
To be continued...  
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(Oh, thanks and many kudos to ICZ for being my beta reader!)  
Authoress' Note:   
I believe I forgot to mention everyones' ages and status. Ishizu is 21 and living in Egypt, where she is an archaeologist; Seto is eighteen and running Kaiba Corporation in addition to going to high school like everyone else and caring for Mokuba; Malik, Marik and Yami are seventeen and living with their parents (or, in Yami's case, adoptive grandparent- he was adopted by Sugoroku's daughter and her husband from an Egyptian orphanage [where his father had dumped him six weeks before] when he was two, since their son was stillborn [Guess what they named HIM? That's right, Yugi!], but they died in a car crash a year later, leaving Sugoroku to take care of Yami for the next fourteen years, when we meet him. Confusing, isn't it?) while going to high school; and Yugi, Jounouchi, Bakura and Ryou are all somewhere between sixteen (Yugi) and eighteen (Jounouchi), if you subtract the three thousand and two years they have been sealed, and they exist in the Puzzle (Yugi), Necklace (Jou), Rod (Ryou), and Ring (Bakura). 


	4. Chapter 3: Enter the virtual pods!

Chapter Three: Demon fishies? O.o;  
Warnings: Shounen-ai, one-sided (for now) Yami/Yugi, Seto/Jounouchi, Malik/Ryou and Marik/Bakura. Pure, pointless, strange fluff. More explanations from the monsters, too.  
DISCLAIMER:  
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. Don't sue me. I'm poor.   
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DEEDLEEDLEEDLING! DEEDLEEDLEEDLING! Yami jerked awake, panting and bathed in sweat.   
"Wha....?" DEEDLEEDLEEDLING! He glared at the phone, then glanced at his clock-radio.   
"Five AM? What kind of asshole..." He picked the phone up, intending to give whoever it was on the other end a large piece of his mind.   
"Who the hell is it?"   
"Yami! Yami, I finished it! It's done!" Yami sighed as he recognised the voice of his best friend.   
"Seto? What are you talking about, and WHY did you decide to tell me whatever-the-hell this is at five in the morning? I got to sleep less than three hours ago!" Seto giggled, a very, VERY out-of-character thing for him to do.  
  
"The virtual pods! I finished the fourth copy of the prototype five minutes ago!" Yami's eyes went so wide, Seto could almost hear them bugging out.  
  
"Th-they're..... done?" Yami stammered. Seto grinned and nodded.  
"Yep!"  
"Program?" Yami asked.  
"Done." Was the reply.  
"Soundtrack?"  
"Mokuba remixed a few of my old compositions on his keyboard for the town, field and dungeon themes. And I used that recording I got of you playing the opening theme to Chrono Cross on your violin for the "Loading" music."   
"And you already have the pods... So, you need a beta tester?"   
"Why else do you think I called? Bring Malik and Marik, too. Remind them to bring their decks. And grab that one we were building for Mokuba."  
"Okay, but why Malik and Marik?"  
"The more people are in your party in this game, the safer you are. Just like any RPG."  
"Oh, I get it. Okay. Give me an hour or so, okay? Okay. See you then. Bye." Yami hung the phone up, and flopped back on his bed.   
"Son of a bitch. The crazy bastard did it." He then rolled over, picked the phone up and tapped a number into it.  
  
RIIIIIIING! RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! "I tawt I saw a puddy tat!" Malik snapped awake, as his Tweety bird phone went berserk. He grabbed blearily for the handset, and flopped back with it pressed to his ear, yawning ponderously.   
"Moshi moshi?"  
"Malik? 'Zat you?" The Egyptian blinked a few times, until he could place the voice in his head.   
"Yam man?"  
There was an exasperated sigh from the other side of the line. "Yes. It's Yami. And DON'T call me Yam man, got it?"  
"Yes, Yam man."  
"Shut up, please. Go to Seto's house, and bring your brother. Now."  
"Okieday. See you there?"  
"Yeah. 'Bye, Malik."  
"'Bye."  
"'Bye."  
"'Bye."  
"Okay, Malik, I am hanging up the phone now. 'Bye!" CLICK! Yami scampered off, showered quickly, and got dressed. As he passed the nightstand, he snagged the puzzle as an afterthought, figuring Seto would like to see it. Laden with his deck, an extra half-built one for Mokuba, three extra booster packs, his shoes and the puzzle, he slipped silently out the door, leaving a note to his grandfather on the kitchen table.  
  
Meanwhile...  
Malik dropped the handset back into the cradle, then climbed out of bed, began to walk to the bathroom, and stubbed his toe on a small, heavy box that lay on the floor.   
"OWWWWWWWWW! OW! OW! MY FOOT IS BROKEN! MARIK! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" For he was certain that it was his twin who had dropped the box on the floor of their shared room, because said twin was not a neat freak like he was. There was a muffled snicker from the bed across the room, then Marik sat up and looked across at his twin.   
"Who was that?"  
Malik plucked the small, rectangular box off the floor, and shook it. "Yami. He wants us to meet him at Seto's house. What IS this thing?"  
Marik shrugged. "All I know is that it's from Isis. I have one too, but Dad wouldn't let me open mine until you had yours. Said something about Isis saying to open them together." He walked over to Malik and sat next to him on his bed, then waved a narrow, square box under his nose. "This one's mine. Ready to find out what's in here?  
"You bet. On the count of three?"  
Marik nodded. "Okay. One..."  
"Two..."  
"Three!"  
  
The twins immediately began shredding the brown paper that covered their prizes, Malik dropping his in a nearby trash can, and Marik chucking his wad across the room. They looked each other in the eyes, then looked down at the boxes that lay in their laps. "Now?" Malik asked breathlessly.  
"Now." His twin agreed. They wasted no more time, but yanked the lids off the boxes, laid them aside, and pulled the layers of cotton batting out, freeing their prizes.   
"Woah..." Marik murmured, lifting a large golden ring out of his box by it's leather cord, then blinked as the small, dangly prism-shaped bits ornamenting the edges pointed at Malik's gift. "Huh?"  
Malik was too busy playing with his own item to notice the odd behavior of his brother's. "Look at this!" He cried, gleefully brandishing the golden rod.   
Marik watched the pointers on the round ornament moving with the swinging rod. "Hey, Malik, look at this, mine is pointing at yours." Malik blinked, then shrugged.   
  
"Oh well. Hey, look, a letter!" He snatched the piece of paper from the box on Marik's lap, and held his brother off with his free hand as he read it.   
"Dear Marik.... OW!" He dropped the letter involuntarily and yelped as his twin yanked his sandy-blond hair. Marik at once let go of his brother's bangs and sat back in the half-light of pre-dawn to read it.   
"Dear Marik, blah blah, dig is going well, yadda yadda... WHAT THE FUCK?!" He yelped, dropping the letter, allowing Malik to retrieve it from the floor.   
"What's wrong? 'Dear Marik... dig is going well... I'll be here a few more months... give Malik my love... Sennen items?'" Malik blinked. "What, exactly, are sennen items?"  
"Don't you remember world history? They're artifacts from ancient Egypt! People have DIED hunting for these things! This must be the Sennen Ring-" He pointed at his own item. "-And that must be the Rod." He pointed at his brother's, then paused a second and grinned maniacally at his twin. "Yami and Seto are going to be SO jealous." Malik didn't reply.   
"Malik? Hey, Mal, wake up!" He waved one hand in front of his twin's blank lavender eyes, then shrugged. "Okay, be that way. I'll be in the shower." Malik didn't move at all, his eyes focused on the golden rod in his hand. His head, however, was whirling with revived memories of Egypt. But, just as he seemed on the verge of some great discovery...  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Catastrophe.   
"GET OUT! OUT!" Marik screamed indignantly. A moment later, a white haired figure was propelled into the hall in a cloud of steam. Malik blinked and shook his head at the strange apparition as it turned and began hammering on the locked bathroom door.   
"I'm going nuts..." He sighed and rubbed his temples with his right hind.... which still held the Sennen Rod. As soon as it touched his bare forehead, Malik jerked away as though he had been burnt, because he had heard a strange voice inhis head. "Okay, I'm definately going nuts." Was all he could say when he turned around to discover an almost-exact duplicate of the white-haired boy across the hall. However, this one was looking directly at him, and Malik got an odd sense of deja vu. "Have I met you somewhere before?"  
Ryou just smiled, stepped forward, stood on tiptoes and kissed Malik gently on the cheek. "I missed you."  
  
At this point I decided to let them alone to sort things out. Well, okay, I didn't exactly DECIDE to let them be- truth be told, I fell out of the tree I was perched in when I leaned forward to get a good look at Malik and decide if his blush could light the town for a week or just a few days, and I was too winded to climb back up. A three-story fall through the branches of a large oak tree will do that to one... good thing I managed to keep my concentration on that recording spell when I got snagged on that broken branch. What? No, I'm not Ryuujin. My name is Aika, last of the Maha Vailo. Eh, what? Oh. Don't worry, we'll catch up with the gang at Seto's residence- Ryuujin and the rest of my adopted family should already be there. In the meantime, I'll expound on what I'm guessing Ryuujin has told you.  
  
Please don't complain, unless you'd rather not have anything to think about until we reach Seto's residence. Hmm? I thought as much. Anyway: I'll outline the facts for you. First, you may have noticed the fact that we're all monsters from Yami, Yuugi, Seto, Jou, Malik, Marik, Bakura and Ryou's decks. There's a reason for that. You see all the cards in their deck are under their protection, so we're somewhat safe from Yamimakai, and anyway, we're their guardian spirits. I happen to be Malik's guardian, for instance, and Akuma is Yami's. There are probably two or three more of our sort in hiding, but we haven't found them yet, so we're pulling double shifts protecting their charges too. Huh? Mokuba's guardian and/or guardians? He or she or they haven't been found yet. Nor has/have Marik's or Ryou's, for that matter. I'm hoping they've not been killed already. What? Oh, how the rest of us are assigned. Let me see now... Ryuujin and her brother Sennen alternately protect their master, Seto the Blue-Eyes is assigned to Sakura, his sister (Simply because she's our only healer, and we NEED her alive. Anyway, it's just confusing trying to talk to him and his master together. Seto- that is, Seto Kaiba- needs a nickname...), Akuma is Yami's guardian, Shade is Yuugi's (I, personally, think Yuugi needs to hook his guardian and Yami's up- you should see the furtive glances those two have been throwing at each other! I'd do it myself, but I must keep up my "innocent" persona. Heh heh heh...), Bahamut is Jounouchi's, and Destroyer is Bakura's. That's all of us... My, I have good timing! There's Akuma. I'll pass what's left of this spell to him, he knows what's going on better than I do.  
  
Okay, let's see here... Good. Hello, this is Akuma, the Magician of Black Chaos. We've just reached- SHADE! It's my tu-  
  
All right! I have control, now! I'm Shade the Dark Magician, we're at Seto Kaiba's house, and Master Yami and Master Yuugi are just about to test Seto's latest invention- the virtual pods! Of course, Master Yami doesn't believe Master Yuugi exists right now, but we can fix that, 'cause we get a big part in this game, too! I can hardly wait- YAY! Master Yami's finally arrived! Here, you can see what he's doing yourself!  
  
Yami jogged down the steps to the basement and let himself in. "Hey, Seto." The brunette looked up from his tinkering and grinned gleefully.   
"All right! Yam man's here! Mokuba!"  
The short, black-haired boy poked his head out from behind the pod Seto was tinkering with. "Hi, Yami!"  
Yami grinned and waved. "Hey, short stuff. C'mere for a second, will you?"  
Mokuba nodded, unplugged his soldering iron, laid his goggles and gloves aside and trotted over to Yami, who drew him over to a corner, and whispered, "What's up with him?"  
"Well, let's see. He bolted down here around midnight... And from the clutter that was surrounding him this morning, I'd say, since then, he's eaten three bags of Cheetos, drunk six pots of expresso, and half a case of jolt cola. Besides which, he was up all night working on those things. I barely managed to pry him away long enough to get him to shower before you got here. Sleep deprivation makes him obsessive..." Mokuba sighed, then grinned. "Oh, well. I'm glad he got the pods done, anyway. Now I have an excuse to beg him to help me build a deck!" Yami laughed.  
"Actually, I've already taken care of that." He plucked a half-built deck and three unopened packs from his pocket. "This was supposed to be for your birthday, but it's only a few days 'til then anyway, so... Happy early birthday, kiddo. There's a Raigeki, a Mirror Force, a Magic Cylinders, three Magic Jammers, three Seven Tools of the Bandit, three Man Eater Bugs, three Masks of Darkness, three Magicians of Faith, a Summoned Skull, a Monster Reborn, a Pot of Greed and a Change of Heart in there. The packs are for you to customise it. Sound good?" Mokuba's eyes went wide.   
"Definately! Thanks, Yami!" He gave the spike-haired one a hug, then sat down cross-legged to open the first of his packs. "Let's see... Harpie's Brother, La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the lamp- phew, what a name!, 7 Coloured Fish, Trap Hole, Ryu-Kishin Powered, Curse of Dragon- Yay! I love this one!, Tremendous Fire, Ookazi, and... EEE! A FLUTE OF SUMMONING DRAGON!" He at once leapt to his feet and began dancing. "A super rare in my very first pack!"  
Yami grinned. "Down, tiger, you have two more packs to open!"  
Mokuba nodded, and ripped into the second one. "Koumori Dragon, Raimei, Tornado Wall, Umi, another 7 Coloured Fish, Card Destruction, Malevolent Nuzzler, a Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress #1, and a Mountain Field Card." Mokuba pouted. "Darn it. Nothing good."  
Yami shrugged. "Can't win them all. Besides, there's still one pack left."  
"Oh, yeah. Let's see what's in the last one... Koumori Dragon again, Harpie's Brother again, 7 Coloured Fish again, Umi and Mountain cards again... Dian Keto the Cure Master, Gaia the Fierce Knight, and..... OHMYGOD! A LORD OF DRAGONS!" The hyper 13-and-363-365ths-year-old leapt to his feet and danced in circles, waving his prize over his head wildly, scattering cards everywhere. Yami yelped as Mokuba nearly stepped on his Magic Cylinders.   
"HEY! Watch it!" The spike haired one rescued the scattered cards and handed them back to Mokuba. "How about you finish your deck, put it someplace safe, and THEN gloat?" Mokuba grinned.   
"Okiedays! I know what theme I'm going to make it, too! It's going to be a Lord of Dragons deck!" Snatching his cards, Mokuba sat down and began building his deck. "Harpie's Brother... Curse of Dragon..." A card dropped over his shoulder, and a deep, slightly sarcastic voice added, "Red-Eyes Black Dragon."   
  
Mokuba looked up and grinned at the twin blondes who were leaning down and watching him. "Hi, Malik! Hi, Marik! Seto's been waiting."  
"Thanks, kiddo." Marik grinned and hopped over his head, followed by his slightly shorter twin.  
"Ano.... Marik, do you want your Red-Eyes back?" Marik turned, grinned, and shook his head.   
"Nah. You need it, and I have another one anyhow." The smile on Mokuba's face could have illuminated half of Domino town.  
"Really?! SUGOI! Thanks, Marik!"  
Marik grinned. "Don't mention it." He then turned to Seto. "The pods ready?"  
"Affirmative. We just need to haul them over to the wall outlet and plug 'em into the wall and the main computer."  
Malik walked over to one and poked it. "There is no way four and a half people can move this thing."  
"I resent that remark." Mokuba pouted from where he sat, shuffling his new deck and tucking it into a small pouch, which he tied to a belt loop of his bluejeans.  
"Sorry, short stuff, but Marik's right. You're too small to be of much help here." Yami smiled wryly at Mokuba, before turning to Malik, Marik and Seto. "So, who has a plan?"  
  
"I do." Yami and company turned as one organism to see who or what was speaking, and were greeted by the sight of the four spirits of their sennen items. Pandemonium ensued. "OH MY DEAR SWEET LORD! I'm hallucinating again! Wait, you see them too?! Are we ALL HALLUCINATING?!"   
Yuugi sweatdropped as the four item-holders stampeded for the first hiding place they saw- behind the bank of computers lining one wall. "Eh... Something tells me that they don't believe we exist..."  
Ryou sighed. "I do believe you're right... But Malik seemed to remember me a few minutes ago..."  
Jou blinked, adorably clueless as usual. "What? We're just trying to help..."  
Bakura scowled, completely ignoring the mess. "He didn't even thank me for trying to save him from that booby trap..."  
Ryou turned to his brother with fire in his normally gentle chocolate brown eyes. "Oh, come off it! We have bigger problems than you not being thanked for being a BLOODY STUPID IDIOT and not realizing that Marik was PERFECTLY safe."  
Bakura scowled at his little brother. "Shut up. You weren't exactly happy when Malik-"  
Ryou cut him off. "Finish that sentence, and I swear, you will be singing treble to the end of your days."  
Yuugi sighed and stepped between the two, who were snarling viciously at each other. "As much as I enjoy watching you two trying to kill each other, we DO have bigger problems."   
The two white-haired brothers scowled halfheartedly, knowing Yuugi was right. "Truce?" Ryou asked softly, offering his hand to Bakura.  
"Truce." His brother took the pro-offered hand, then turned to survey the wreckage of the room. "Now what?" The other three also glanced around the room, which was, indeed, badly messed up by the mad flight of Seto, Mokuba, Marik, Malik and Yami.   
"First order of business: Convince Yami and company we exist, and don't wish to kill them." Yuugi stated firmly, stepping resolutely forward. Jou sighed.   
  
"Easier said than done, Yug'. Much easier said than done."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
O.o; woah. Biiiiiig.... And pointless.... don't worry, next chapter the plot will unfold a little. I think. I'm making this up as I go along.... though I do know the ending.... Eep. I ramble. Anyway, R & R, pretty please? I thrive on the opinions of my reviewers. And read the other fic I put up a couple days ago... Even if you think it sucks. I need the criticism. 


	5. Side Story 1: The night before the virtu...

Okay. I'm aware this isn't a real chapter, but it's a sidefic, and it will explain some loose ends from the past in the Shadow Realm. Plus, it sets the theme for the relationship between the Dark Magician and the Magician of Black Chaos! (Completely adorable couple, IMHO. Don't look at me that way.) ^_^

ACK! Gomen nasai, I forgot what DEMON HTML does to text between those litthe arrow-thingees! Here it is, with the lost text. Should make more sense now.   
WARNING: Implied, one-sided shounen-ai. The Dark Magician gets covered in chocolate syrup and chucked in a swimming pool.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The Shadow Realm. It was a pretty normal place all around- well, normal if you consider styled after ancient Egypt normal- except for the eternal night covering the place. Fortunately for the inhabitants, the "monsters" who had been sealed within to protect the place, they had some modern technonogy for their own amusement. Such as the small radio that the twenty-six-year old Magician of Black Chaos, Akuma, was fiddling with under one of the many small lights in the living room.  
"Hellspawn..." He grumbled, prodding it with his index finger. By some odd coincidence, his finger hit the power button and turned it on. "That's more like it..." He muttered, picking it up and carrying it into his room as a song began to play. 

_Oh, when you're in love, there's no time and no space,_  
Akuma's face took on a look of absolute horror. "Almighty Gods, NO!" He began frantically prodding at the radio again, but this time the irony gods took no pity on him and made him miss the power button entirely. 

_There's a permanent smile on your face._  
"No there isn't!" He growled at the demon radio, prodding at it frantically. "Turn off, damn you!" 

_Your friends all complain, that you're goin' insane,_  
"I AM!"

_But the truth is, they're just afraid._  
"And well they SHOULD be... This damn thing is enough to make ANYONE homicidal." Akuma dropped the small box on his bed and sat in front of it, cross-legged. Had anyone been foolish enough to ask him, he would have sworn it was mocking him. 

_And hey, hey, hey somewhere,  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares._

The magician tilted his head, his river of black hair spilling over his right shoulder as he did so.   
"Hmm... Reminds me of something..." 

_Hey, hey, hey somewhere,  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares..._

_When you decide that what counts is inside,_

A strange look appeared in Akuma's eyes. "...Kageri..."

_Your friends all say it's a lie._

"And so she did!" Akuma thought back to the day he had confessed his infatuation with the young, purple-haired magician-in-training to their blonde fellow-apprentice, the Dark Magician Girl. 

*FLASHBACK*  
"You wanted to see me?" Wide, friendly blue eyes searched deep, red-brown ones.  
"Hn." A curt nod. The blonde girl pouted, crossing her arms over her ample chest.  
"Well? Spit it out already! Is it about Kageri?" A flicker of surprise passed through the cold eyes of the twenty-one-year-old magician in training.  
"It is, isn't it?" The blue eyes were more focused now, prodding the magician to tell his secrets.  
Another nod.  
A sigh. "Akuma, you've got to let it go. It's just a crush, nothing more. It CAN'T be anything more."  
Another flicker, this one of a tolerant sadness- he had expected this. "I wish you could tell my heart that."  
"Don't ever trust your heart. It'll only steer you wrong."  
*END FLASHBACK*

'No good memories there.' He thought, wryly. 'She meant the best, but I really can't help the way I feel...'

_But there's no brighter light, when you look in her eyes,  
When you're walkin' her home through the night..._

*FLASHBACK*  
Akuma leaned against the back wall of the walk-in closet he had chosen to hide in, and yawned. 'This has GOT to be the longest FREAKING game of hide-and-go-seek EVER... Never again am I letting Kijutsu seek.'  
He was startled out of his reverie by frantic giggles issuing from just outside the door, and ducked behind a black trenchcoat as a Dark Magician threw himself into the closet and slammed the door behind him, then collapsed in a fit of silent giggles. Very familiar giggles.  
"Kageri?" He whisper-shouted. "Is that you?"  
"'Kuma?" Akuma grinned. 'Yep, definately Kageri- nobody else dares to use a nickname for me.'  
"Yeah, 's me. What're you doing?"  
"Hiding from my demon cousins. I mean, it's my sixteenth birthday, are they SUPPOSED to torment me?" Akuma just chuckled.   
"Probably another one of their freaky 'traditions'." A chuckle. "By the way, I haven't had a chance to wish you a happy birthday, goofball." Kageri scratched the back of his head.   
"Ano... 'Kuma, this isn't going to involve a birthday spanking, is it? I've been tricked like that before..." Akuma blushed, then laughed.  
"Nah. I'm not THAT mean." He waved one hand around in midair, conjuring up a tiny box, and tossed it to the Dark Magician. "Happy birthday."  
Kageri snagged it, popped it open and blinked in surprise. Inside, there lay a golden earring, engraved with the Eye of Horus.  
"What's this?"  
"Goofball insurance." Akuma grinned, and pulled his black hair away from his right ear. In the faint light that the keyhole provided, Kageri caught the glint of a golden earring. "They're communicators." A perplexed look from the purple-haired magician. Akuma just sighed. "Put it on." Kageri obediently hooked the golden ornament into the hole in his own right ear, and at once a sort of chamber opened up in his mind.  
[Can you hear me?] He blinked, realising Akuma was talking in his head.  
{So these things let us talk to each other in our heads?} A nod. {Cool!} Kageri tackleglomped the Magician of Black Chaos, who blushed. {Thank you!}  
[You're welcome, Shade(1).] Akuma tentatively wrapped his arms around Kageri in return. They stayed like that for roughly five minutes, after which Kageri's cousins caught them, dragged Kageri outside, covered him in chocolate syrup and chucked him in the swimming pool.  
*END FLASHBACK*

'Okay, so they weren't all bad.' He chuckled to himself. 'It was actually kind of funny, even if he DID drag me into the pool when I laughed at him.' 

_And hey, hey, hey somewhere  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares,  
Hey, hey, hey somewhere  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares..._

Akuma leaned back against the wall, humming softly along with the song. 'I could learn to like this one...'

_Let yourself go with the tide,  
There's an angel by your side  
Tonight..._

"And tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that... At least we're nearly always together."

_You threw your fear in the sea..._

"... Or the swimming pool, as the case may be." 

_Back at the bar, getting cynically stoned,  
Your friends are drinkin' alone._

"Well, OF COURSE. I don't drink." 

_But it's funny, they don't even cross your mind,  
When she asks you into her home..._

"They wouldn't, either, if I could only get up the nerve to tell him..." 

_And hey, hey, hey somewhere,  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares.  
Hey, hey, hey somewhere,  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares..._

"Swimming pool..." 

_Hey, hey, hey somewhere,  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares._

"Swimming pool." 

_Hey, hey, hey somewhere,  
You threw your fear in the sea of no cares._

"Swimming pool!" 

_Hey, hey, hey somewhere,  
You threw your fear in the sea of no ca-a-ares..._

"SWIMMING POOL, DANGIT!" 

_You threw your fear in the sea- threw your fear in the sea!_

"Swimming pool, SWIMMING POOL!" 

Akuma sighed, almost wistfully, as the song ended, and poked at the radio again, noting the fact that he had actually managed to turn it off. "Demon thing..." He set it down next to his bed, then flicked the light off and lay down, trying to sleep. 

Just outside his bedroom door, the Dark Magician stretched, shook himself, and sighed.   
  
"Someday, Akuma. Someday..."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
1: Shade is his nickname, his real name is Kageri, but only Akuma knows it, all the rest don't. There's a reason for this. What it is, though, will simply have to wait for another day XD Anyway, R&R. (Tell me how horrible it is, I DARE you XD) 


	6. Chapter 4: Oh, dear RA

Woah, it's been four months already? I'm sorry! I hope this huge (for me anyway) chapter makes up for my tardiness...  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
Only people named Kazuki Takahashi own Yu-Gi-Oh!  
  
Kazuki Takahashi is a person's name IF AND ONLY IF he is male.  
  
I am female.  
  
Therefore, my name is not Kazuki Takahashi.  
  
Therefore, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!   
  
Don't sue me.  
  
Warnings: Majorly, MAJORLY OOC Seto, weirdness, and zombies. Possible shounen-ai, if you squint.  
  
CHAPTER FOUR  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
*Third Person/Shade's POV*  
  
Yami cowered behind the computers, mumbling under his breath, arms wrapped around his knees, which were tucked up under his chin.   
  
"I'm just dreaming, I'm just dreaming, this is only a dream, I'll wake up in a little while, this is just a dream..."  
  
Malik sighed and sweatdropped.   
  
"I don't think we're dreaming, Yami."  
  
"There's an easy way to find out." Marik jumped into the conversation, peeping out from behind the computers for a minute before dropping back down with his back to the machines.  
  
"How?" Seto chirped curiously. Marik sweatdropped at his friend's out-of-character-ness, then briefly explained his plot.  
  
"We'll each look at them and describe them. If our descriptions tally, then we aren't dreaming."  
  
"I knew my genius would rub off on you someday, brother!" Malik threw an arm around Marik's shoulders and grinned cheesily. Marik turned his head and grinned back at his brother.  
  
"YOUR genius rub off on ME? It's the other way around."  
  
"Nuh-uh!"  
  
"Yah-huh!"  
  
"Nuh-uh!"  
  
"Yah-HUH!"  
  
"Grr!"  
  
"GRR!"  
  
Yami sighed and turned away from the two scowling brothers.  
  
"Who's going to go first?"  
  
"Oooh, me! Me!" Seto squealed, waving one hand in the air as he bounced hyperly. Yami just sighed defeatedly.  
  
"Okay, Seto. You first." The brunette popped his head over the edge of the computer banks and began relating what he saw.  
  
"Okies, there's a blonde guy who's almost as tall as me with brown eyes and a green jacket, a really really short guy with hair like Yami's without the blonde streaks and big purple eyes, and two guys with white hair and brown eyes. One of them's taller than the other, his hair's wilder, and his eyes are meaner." Seto nodded importantly and sat down. Yami raised one eyebrow.   
  
"Okies? Eh... Okay..." He poked his head up and took a cursory glance around, then nodded.  
  
"Tall blond, short spikehead, white-haired twins... Tallies with Seto's description. Mokuba?" Seto's little brother had to stand to get a good look at the four confused item-spirits, but once he had seen, he too confirmed his brother's description of them.  
  
"Mokuba sees them too... So, either he's nuts, or they're not hallucinations after all." Yami bobbed his head thoughtfully.  
  
At this point, one of the alleged hallucinations poked his head over the computer banks and chirped cheerily at the startled group of boys.   
  
"Mokuba's not nuts, we're not hallucinations!" Seto blinked confusedly at the boy.  
  
"So where'd you come from?"   
  
A white head popped over the edge next to the blonde's.  
  
"From those ornaments that are, for the most part, hanging around your neck. You'll remember eventually."  
  
"Remember what? Who are you people? WHAT are you people?" Yami drew himself up to his full height (all 5'7" of it), crimson eyes flashing. The white haired boy just chuckled, shook his head and sighed.  
  
"It's a long story. A very long story." He chewed lightly on his lower lip, and absently brushed a strand of snowy hair out of his face. "Where do I start?"   
  
The littlest one popped his head over the computers- just barely- and smiled sunnily.  
  
"How 'bout... Mmm, I dunno, what do you think, Katsu?" The blond wrinkled his nose at the small one and whined annoyedly.  
  
"YUU-gi! I thought I asked ya to call me Jou, not Katsu- it makes me sound like a girl!" Seto blinked, tilted his head, then grinned.  
  
"Katsu? Sounds like a name for a puppy!" The blond cringed.   
  
"Aw, maaan..."   
  
Seto's grin grew quite a bit more manic.  
  
"Puppy, do ya like your name?"  
  
"I'm not a puppy!" Katsu-erm, Jou, pouted.   
  
"Fine. Puppy." Jou began to retaliate, then sighed.  
  
"...I can't win this one, can I?"   
  
A chorus from the brown-haired CEO, the white-haired twins and his spike-haired best friend.  
  
"Nope!"  
  
"...I hate you all."  
  
The blond pouted, then turned to Mokuba.  
  
"Short stuff, can't you help me out a little here? Be the rational one?"  
  
Mokuba blinked his big, mossy eyes a few times, then shrugged.  
  
"I don't think they mean us any harm, and they DID offer to help us move the pods so we can try 'em out.... I see no harm in taking them up on their offer."  
  
The blond grinned hugely.  
  
"Ya see? The little guy trusts us, don'cha trust his judgement on stuff? C'mon, just tell us where to move these things, and we'll move 'em."  
  
The four teenaged boys looked at each other, looked at Mokuba, then shrugged.   
  
"Works for me." Yami murmured nonchalantly to Malik, Marik and Seto, before stepping forward and bowing formally to the four new boys.   
  
"Ohayo gozaimasu, minna-san. Boku no namae wa Mutou Yami desu. Yoroshiku."  
  
Four sets of perplexed eyes pinned him.  
  
"What in the name of Ammut was THAT?" The taller white-haired boy exclaimed, evidently clueless, and irked at his lack of knowledge.  
  
Yami quirked an eyebrow.  
  
"Umm... an introduction? I just told you good morning, that my last name is Mutou, first name is Yami, and that it was nice to meet you." He then paused and blinked. "Wait a second, you've been speaking and understanding Japanese ever since you randomly appeared in front of us. Why didn't you understand my introduction?"  
  
"Because we gleaned all the japanese we know from what you've been thinking, and you don't randomly introduce yourself in your heads." The slightly shorter white-haired boy piped up.  
  
Dead silence reigned for a few minutes... until, of course, the taller snow-haired teen spoke up.  
  
"So. Are we going to move those box things or not?"  
  
"Okieday!" Seto lightly skipped over to the nearest pod and rested a hand on it.   
  
"Puppy, you, me, Yam man, Malikky, and short Yami duplicate boy get to move this one over there." He pointed at a spot roughly fifteen feet away. "Marikky, whitey-hairs, and Mokuba get that one over there." He pointed at another pod; this one to his left. "And they move it over there." He pointed to a spot about a foot and a half from the spot he had pointed out as their pod's final resting place.  
  
Yami quirked an eyebrow, then shrugged.  
  
"Yam man...? If you say so, Seto. Come on, Malik."   
  
"I am not just a duplicate of Yami." The short spike-headed boy pouted, before going over and heaving at the pod with Yami, Malik, his blond friend, and Seto.  
  
Yami grunted softly as he lifted.  
  
"Well.... what's your name.... then?" He gasped, as they shuffled towards the spot Seto had chosen for the pod, trembling under the weight of the piece of equipment.  
  
"Y-Yuugi... OOPH!" There was a unified grunt, as both teams of teenaged bishonen set down their burdens.  
  
"Goddamn, Seto, these things are fuckin' HEAVY!" Marik grumbled, stretching and wincing as his back cracked. He was then clobbered over the head by a flying wrench.  
  
"LANGUAGE! Mokuba, remember?"  
  
Marik death glared at the wrench-flinger, AKA his twin, Malik.  
  
"Shut your pie hole."  
  
"Make me, dorkface."  
  
"Asswipe."  
  
"Dickwad."  
  
"Schmuck."  
  
"Tightass."  
  
"Fucker."  
  
They were then both clobbered by Seto.  
  
"MIND YOUR LANGUAGE ALREADY!" He roared.  
  
"Yessir..." Was the terrified reply from the Egyptian twins.  
  
Seto at once dropped his weapon- a large, hardback book- and grinned sunnily.  
  
"Okay then! Let's get those other two pods into position!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah..." Malik muttered.  
  
"Slavedriver..." His brother added, under his breath.  
  
Another few minutes of heaving and ho-ing later, all four pods were connected to the main computer and ready to go.  
  
"Okies! Now, who wants to go into the virtual world with me?" Seto chirped, half into a pod already.  
  
"I'm in, but wait a minute before you start, Seto." Yami turned and narrowed his eyes at the four item spirits. "You, Katsuya, and Yuugi, you come with us. That way, you and your friends can't pull anything funny on us- if we go down, so do you."  
  
Yuugi smiled widely, and nodded.  
  
"Okay, Yami- this'll be fun!"  
  
Katsuya grinned, too.  
  
"I 'gree. This's gonna be SO awesome."  
  
Yami blinked, then shrugged and climbed in his pod, mirrored by Seto, Katsuya and Yuugi.  
  
"Okay, decks go in the little drawer-thingees." Seto instructed them calmly, popping his own deck into the small drawer and sliding it shut.  
  
"Umm.... aww, crapola, I don't have a deck..." Katsuya mumbled. Yuugi sighed.  
  
"Check in your soul room, Jou."  
  
"Oh." There was a little poof as Jou vanished, and a similar poof as he reappeared.  
  
"Got it!"  
  
Yami and Seto shook their heads hard, and sighed.  
  
"Everyone ready?" Seto called cheerily.  
  
A chorus of "Yeah!"s answered him.  
  
"Okies... Fire 'em up, Mokuba!"  
  
"You got it!" The black-haired boy flipped a few switches, then hit a small, blue button. There was a brilliant flash of light as the four boys were sucked into the virtual world.  
  
Then, of course, the real fun began.  
  
First, the ground began to shake.  
  
"EARTHQUAKE!" Bakura yelped, throwing himself on top of his brother, shielding Ryou from the falling chunks of concrete and plaster with his body, while Malik and Marik huddled in a corner like scared kittens, and Mokuba looked lost.   
  
BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...  
  
Ryou tensed and looked towards the door as SOMETHING slammed against it repeatedly. Bakura just smirked, relaxing and standing up.   
  
"It's okay, baka. Whatever's out there can't get in to us."  
  
The booming became fainter as he spoke. "See? Whatever it is, it's giving up al....rea...dy...." He trailed off, staring in horror as the door began rusting before his eyes.  
  
Boom... Boom..... WAKKARASHBOOM! The rusted doors shattered with a deafening crash, and Bakura immediately shoved his brother behind him, snatched a crowbar from a pile of tools and, holding it up defensively, tensed to fight. One glimpse of the THINGS that had shattered the door, however, was enough to knock his makeshift weapon right out of his hands.  
  
They looked like rejects from a b-rated horror film, disgusting from their rotting, shrunken heads to their worm-eaten, slime-dripping, crumbling toes. There was only one name for such creatures: Zombies. And, judging from the determined way in which they were staggering towards the small group of teenagers, they were cannibalistic ones.  
  
"This looks bad...." Ryou murmured, backing away from the approaching creatures. "This looks very bad indeed." His brother just nodded, pale but determined to sell his life dearly.  
  
*Shade's POV*  
  
At this point, however, I was sucked into the virtual world... and let me tell you something, it was a wild ride! From here on out, i'll be narrating events in the virtual world... Sakura'll handle things in real life, I guess.  
  
*Sakura's POV*  
  
I'm Sakura, the youngest Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Um... Not much to say about me... The battle's just about to start. Those boys (And girls... Honestly, my sister's as bad as that hyper rascal of a Dark Magician) and their dramatic entrances...  
  
Mokuba pressed himself back against the wall, his green eyes filled with terror as the zombies pressed in to try and get a bite at his throat.  
  
"B-big brother... help..." Unfortunately, his big brother couldn't hear him. However, just as he had resigned himself to being the zombies' breakfast... KRSSSSSH! One wall of the not-entirely-underground basement literally exploded, flooding the room with light.  
  
"Chaos Scepter Blast!" There was a flash of black light and a puff of foul-smelling smoke, and when the air cleared, the only trace of the zombies was a pile of ash. Mokuba looked up, startled, to see...  
  
"The Magician of Black Chaos...?" He squeaked, amazed.   
  
Malik blinked, then turned to his brother.  
  
"Is it just me, or did a bunch of Duel Monsters just save our asses?"  
  
"It wasn't just you, bro." Marik stared, nonplussed, as a short girl with dragon claws and wings slashed away at the zombies. (A.N. Ryuujin. She's partly transformed, but she can't go the whole way, the basement's too small for her fully-transformed dragon body)   
  
Ryou cheered wildly as our small group of magicians completely annihilated the zombies.   
  
"YEAH! GO GETTUM! WOOOOO!"   
  
His brother just watched, shaking his head.   
  
"And he's not even as hyper as Yuugi would be if he was here..." Bakura sighed.  
  
*Shade's POV*  
  
Speaking of Yuugi, he was just awakening to (virtual) reality.  
  
"Whaa-?"  
  
Yami bent over him.  
  
"You're awake, I see." He helped Yuugi to his feet.  
  
"You took awhile, you know. Seto, Katsuya and I have already chosen our teammates."  
  
"Huh?" Well, Yami just melted under the cute look. "Teammates?"  
  
"Y-yeah... that's how this game works. You choose one monster from your deck to remain with you throughout the game... sort of your primary protector. If he or she dies, you have to replace him or her ASAP, or your life points take all the hits he or she would have taken."  
  
"Coolios! Can I choose the Dark Magician?" Yami shook his head, amused.  
  
"I took the Dark Magician already, so who are you going to choose instead?"  
  
"Umm..." He frowned, then perked up.  
  
"The Magician of Black Chaos!"  
  
YES! Akuma's gonna be here too! WOOHOO! Pity the others won't be here to see this. This is gonna be so COOL!  
  
*Sakura's POV*  
  
Unfortunately for Ryou, just then a set of midnight-black claws solidified from the shadows and backhanded him into a wall. He groaned faintly, then collapsed in a heap, completely out of it. The small group of teenagers recoiled in terror as two unearthly black dragons emerged from the darkness, weaving their long, serpentine bodies in a complex pattern before letting out simultaneous roars and bursts of dark flame, narrowly missing his slumped, limp form.   
  
And there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Any attack we try could easily ricochet and kill him. This is bad. This is very bad indeed.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I'm bad. My first chapter in nearly four months and I end it with a cliffhanger. Feh. Ah well, at least now I can lead on through the good ideas I have. Next chapter: Whee! Virtual fun-ness! Seeya soon(ish!)  
  
And don't forget to R&R! 


End file.
